DIRECTOR'S OVERVIEW AND ESSENTIAL CHARACTERISTICS ABSTRACT The Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Knight Cancer Institute (the Knight) is a matrix cancer center at OHSU in Portland, Oregon. The goal of the Knight is to perform cancer-focused research and to convert these findings into treatments and prevention strategies to improve outcomes for cancer patients. The OHSU Knight Cancer Institute has 139 members who belong to four scientific programs - Cancer Biology, Translational Oncology, Quantitative Oncology, and Cancer Prevention and Control and utilize six well-established shared resources - Flow Cytometry, Proteomics, Advanced Multiscale Microscopy, Integrated Genomics, BioLibrary & Pathology, and Biostatistics. The 139 Knight members are supported by $87.6 million in total extramural funding, $42.9 million of which is from the NCI. In the current funding period, members have published 1,139 cancer focused, peer-reviewed publications, of which 24% were intra-programmatic, 15% inter-programmatic, and 62% externally collaborative. In 2015 a total of 481 patients were enrolled on therapeutic treatment trials, representing over 10% of our new patient population. OHSU is the only academic medical center in Oregon and the Knight Cancer Institute is the only NCI-designated cancer center in the state. The Knight's catchment area is defined as the entire state of Oregon. Our research efforts are targeted to populations and cancers that are unique to our catchment area and includes evaluating populations in our catchment area that are more likely to diagnosed with late-stage cancers. Serving as the advanced oncology care facility for the state, the Knight brings depth and breadth to basic laboratory research; clinical research, including early phase clinical trials; and prevention, control, and population-based research with training programs for cancer researchers and health care professionals. In the current funding period we have recruited 32 new investigators, including four Associate Directors, completely restructured the leadership committees and the programmatic structure of the Knight to facilitate intra- and inter-programmatic interactions and to accelerate progress in achieving our goals. This has led to a significant increase in cancer focus, an increase in NCI funding, and enhanced collaborations as demonstrated by publications and collaborative grants. Given our growth and accomplishments in the current funding period, we request consideration for continued funding and feel we are well positioned for consideration of comprehensive status.